Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Paul Munyuki
23 June 2009
Harare — ZIMBABWE'S hunt for another silverware in the rugby Sevens competition came to a disappointing end when the Cheetahs bowed out of the Tuskers' Safari tournament in Kenya after losing to a select side.
The Cheetahs lost 14-12 to a Kenyan select side - the Chairman's Select -- in the Plate semi-final and that brought their winning streak to an end.
Having won all their three Pool D games after first beating neighbours Zambia 19-12, the Zimbabwe side went on to play French side Grenoble who they also beat 28-22.
In their final pool game, the Cheetahs edged Bristol of England 14-12 and this was enough to see the side finish top in their group to progress to the Main Cup quarter-final.
This was where the Cheetahs winning streak ended as they lost 17-0 to Japanese side Samurai and the defeat meant that the locals were demoted to play in the Plate semi-final.
And in the Plate semi-final the Cheetahs proved weak opponents against the Kenya select side with the Chairman's Select progressing on to the Plate final having overpowered the Cheetahs.
Zimbabwe won the Tuskers title in 2000 and were the losing finalists in 2006 and 2007 and since then they have been losing in the semi-finals with a defeat to eventual winners Kenya in last year's edition.
The Cheetahs technical team had kept faith in the side that took part at the Castle Sevens rugby tournament in Zambia two weeks ago and there were no changes to the side that walked out of the tournament unbeaten.
Having taken the Castle Sevens as their preparatory event for the Tusker's Sevens, the Cheetahs were hopeful that they would conquer in the East African tournament.
Team manager Bruce Hobson sent a team that had half the players taking part in the international tournament for the first time.
He said he did this as he was looking at expanding his pool base for the future of the Cheetahs as "some of the players are not definite" due to club commitments and injuries.
"Some of the players are not definite due to problems including club commitments, personal issues and injuries so if we expand our player base to about 20 then we will be okay.
"We have players like Prince Edward schoolboy Njabulo Ndlovu, who was good in Zambia, Ryan (Manyika), Gordon (Pangeti), Slater (Ndlovu) who were not available while Willis Magasa still has a shoulder injury.
"But we have to have a situation where we do not have to lose sleep because some players do not want to come and play for the Cheetahs for some reason.
"The good thing is that we have a balanced number of experienced players in the team so that is good for continuity," said Hobson before their departure.
Cheetahs Squad
Daniel Hondo, Grant Mitchell, Fortune Chipendo, Taffy Mhende, Alex Ndangana, Gardner Nechironga, Scotty Johns, Bruce Chibesa, Busani Ndlovu, Japhet Ndebele, Peter Benade.
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